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Preparation |
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5th September 2009 -
I've arranged with Roy, a local farmer to get the paddock and the
neighbouring weed-filled one sub-soiled. So, in preparation I spent Saturday
morning spraying with "Roundup". I was originally going to just
clear the strips for the vines but was advised by Mark at Chilford Hall to
clear the entire paddock so that the young vines have less competition from
weeds and grass. The yellow bucket was used as a target to make sure I got
even coverage on each run, no GPS or laser guidance on my quad bike.
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6th September 2009 -
Just 24 hours and there is already a brown tinge to the field.
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6th September 2009 -
I took the fencing down between the two paddocks to make Roy's job easier
with the sub-soiler, will reinstall next year to line up with my trellises
making the neighbouring paddock that will be re-seeded a tad bigger.
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14th September 2009
- Today the earth moved, Roy sub-soiled the paddocks, first east-west then north-south.
The sub-soiler is an awesome single blade cutter that sinks two feet into the
ground, and needs all 200Hp the tractor has to slice the ground like cutting
flesh with a knife.
This will now be left to the
winter rain and frost to break up then I will rotovate in the new year. So, no
turning back now, it feels a bit like the scene in 'Field of dreams' were he
rips up his corn to build a baseball diamond, except the other way round for
me "Build it and they will come."
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23rd March, Winter
has done its stuff and Martin Yem kindly popped round with his Kabota tractor
and rotovated this morning
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